3 minute readrundown
Emily Blunt spoke at Elle Women in Hollywood about how Otis Redding’s “Try a Little Tenderness” inspired her to become an actress. “If you know this song, you know there’s a part where he riffs completely crazy and there’s this unhinged side to him…like he’s possessed. And I remember being a kid and thinking, ‘I want to feel this way,'” she said. Brandt was introduced to me by my friend Smashing. Machine co-star Dwayne Johnson.
For Emily Blunt, her love of self-expression began with singing. The Elle Women in Hollywood winner spoke at an LA event about how Otis Redding’s Try a Little Tenderness inspired her to become an actress.
“I was 7 years old when I heard that. I had a really bad stutter and my body froze up a little bit,” she said. “I’m also from England, and in England we don’t really express our emotions that intensely. If you know this song, there’s a part where he riffs completely crazy, and he has this wild abandon. You feel him spreading his wings and letting go. He’s almost screaming and singing. It’s like he’s possessed. And I remember being a kid and thinking, ‘I really want to feel that.'”
She went on to say that she was able to achieve that throughout her career. “The story I was told and the characters I played gave me that feeling, and I’m very grateful for that.”
Brandt concluded by thanking his family and reflecting on his journey thus far. “I’m just as grateful for my beautiful family. They just land in the softest place after an effort to rock like Otis. It’s been an amazing journey, and looking back on it I almost get whiplash. It’s so wild. So, thank you. I’m so grateful.”
The Smashing Machines actress was introduced by her friend and co-star Dwayne Johnson. Dwayne Johnson recalled the first time he saw her on screen in The Devil Wears Prada. “There was something interesting about her,” he recalled. “I remember thinking back to that time and saying to her, ‘I’d love to work with her someday.’
He continued, “Emily, like all the actresses here, can act at 10 feet tall. And there’s a real force of nature behind her. You can feel it.” Johnson also said that Blunt would go down as “one of the greatest actors of our time.”
Watch her full speech above.
In a profile for Elle, Blunt candidly talked about the best and worst parts of being a woman in Hollywood. “The worst part is the intense scrutiny. Of course, without hesitation,” she said. “I try to make it like white noise. But I’m not immune to it either. And don’t Google yourself. It’s a slippery slope. And the best part is this community. There are all these abstract, wild, fun people around – creative people.”
“In my first play, it was[with]Dame Judi Dench, and she was so magical to me. I was 18 years old. I learned some things from her. She was really a lily pad to everything else. She was very kind to me, even though I was the only person in that cast under 50. She never made me feel like I wasn’t welcome in the dressing room. I felt like I was part of the gang. She was funny every day, she was mischievous, she had a great sense of humor, and she didn’t take her work seriously at all, and that kind of balance was really an inspiration to me.”
He added, “I saw one of the most respected actors at the top of his game, and I saw how much humor was injected every day. She was a big part of me. She was mischievous and just a fun person. When I was a kid, she was like, ‘Darling, come upstairs. I brought you a Starbucks.’ Then she says, “Come upstairs.” Pierce Brosnan stops by. It was heaven. I was in a daze the whole time I was at work. I cried when it finished, I cried. I was beside myself. ”
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